Baglung Road Blacktopping Begins After 28 Years

Baglung. Blacktopping has been started on the road connecting Tangram village of Kanthekhola Rural Municipality-4, 28 years after its track was opened. The six-kilometer road connecting Achette in Kanthekhola Rural Municipality-2 to Tangram is being blacktopped.

The road is being blacktopped at a cost of Rs 2 crore 89 lakh 84 thousand allocated by the Gandaki Province government in the current financial year, informed Anil Barde, engineer at the Infrastructure Development Office. He informed that the road improvement work has been moved forward by keeping it under a multi-year plan and about two kilometers of the road will be blacktopped this year.

Engineer Barde said that the contract for blacktopping the road along with its improvement was signed with RS Hill JV last year on Ashad, to be completed by the upcoming Ashad 15. He said that the work of widening the road, constructing walls, and building drains is currently underway.

Engineer Barde said, "The construction company is currently working at full swing, and so far 60 percent of the work has been completed. As a limited budget has been allocated this time, 800 meters out of one kilometer seven hundred meters will be blacktopped using pre-mix technology."

Local Prem Thapa expressed happiness, saying that after 28 years of the road being opened without improvement, which caused suffering due to mud in the rainy season and potholes in the dry season, some relief will now be available. He said that it used to be difficult to travel and transport goods due to the narrow and difficult road, but now it will be easier.

Rural Municipality Chairman Raju Thapa said that the road is being blacktopped in collaboration with the provincial government to end the suffering of thousands of citizens due to the lack of road improvement. The road connects the citizens of wards no. 3, 4, and 2 of Kanthekhola with the district headquarters Baglung bazaar.

"Due to the limited budget of the rural municipality, even such important roads could not be blacktopped. After requesting the provincial government many times, the budget was allocated. Blacktopping has now started in some sections. The road will be fully blacktopped by next year," said Chairman Thapa.